Is online class Beneficial or Not?
Since the beginning of Covid 19, 4 years ago teachers and schools have moved classes strictly online. During that time it was for safety procedures and the government enforcing the people to follow the CDC guidelines about how to stay safe from the spread. But now moving to mask mandates are being lifted. There has been a debate rather online school is beneficial or not.
The question of rather it is beneficial to have online classes or have them stay in person. Mental Health should be taken into account in this debate. The Community Music of Boston, a non-profit accredited music school points out how people's mental health is affected differently. “Kids and teens with pre-existing mental health concerns go can do well without on-campus support during virtual learning. Others have developed poor mental health in isolation—even college-aged students. Public school students have felt unmotivated to learn and cut off from teacher support during lockdowns, and their academic progress often suffers. This, paired with the inability to socialize with friends, worsens their already-low moods. Yet returning to in-person learning can be equally anxiety-inducing, depending on academic, social, and health factors. Some students have found it easier to focus on academics without social distractions and have earned slightly higher grades and test scores. Conversely, some have enjoyed an improved quality of life after returning to in-person classes. “
Thinking about how everyone went online, some classes had it easier than others. For classes that need to be in-person, it affected how the course was taught. How did students and faculty adjust to having physically demanding classes online? Christine Eschenfelder who is an Associate Professor at Middle Tennessee State Unvistery with a Ph.D. in mass communication agrees with having online classes was a necessary precaution but some of the courses she teaches are better taught in person. “During covid, of course, it was a necessity, so it was for everyone's safety… I like to teach in person because I teach a lot of skill classes and I know faculty members that teach skill classes such as editing, video, and using video cameras it really hard to do that online. It was a lot easier to do it in person so for faculty it was a bit of a challenge but my students were fantastic, they were really patient and we worked together to create a really good online experience for them during the pandemic.”
Some think schools should offer hybrid classes. Some people say that online classes help them balance their lives. Either they can’t make it in person or they have kids. Seth Tackett is a journalism major with a concentration in sports media. “ I only had one true hybrid class since I’ve been in college…and I did not do well in that class. That is the one class I did not do well in, in my entire college career…It’s kind of hard to talk about it because we're not the non-traditional student. I don’t have kids, I don’t have family, I don’t have to worry about that stuff. But I definitely think again it's about options and it's good to have offerings for all different types of students…You have thousands among thousands of people going to a university not everyone is going to you know the fresh high school graduate…It's good to have a balance of class offerings.”
There is also the concern that online classes are not beneficial. Some of the concerns are that it allows students to not pay attention and allow the student to cheat. This has been a high concern for many since the student is online and it can lead to the student having access to things that allows cheating. There is also a concern that students can get distracted or disinterested because of their surrounding environment. Karli Sutton is a journalism major with a focus on broadcasting points online is about a person's level of drive and independence to do an online course.“Personally, I didn’t pay attention when I had to take online classes. And I don’t think that is the online class's fault I think that it is my fault. I believe it takes a higher level of independence and a higher level of drive in order to do online classes because it is so independent. You have to do it by yourself, you have things that you are told to do but you don’t have that guiding help from your classmates or from your professors or anything like that person. So it’s all basically relied on yourself and I wouldn’t say its bad I would just say that if somebody knows that they are that kind of person…then they definitely need to know that option is not the best for them”
The debate of rather online is beneficial or not depends on the individual. People have a variety of things to take into account to see rather they are the type of person that needs to do an in-person class or an online class. The individual has to take into consideration of their mental health. Some can do better with online classes because of their mental health. Then some students can’t be in isolation and it would be detrimental to their mental health. Teachers and professors have to also work around whether their courses can be online for their hands-on classes. The average individual need to be able to hold themselves accountable. To ask themselves do they have the self-determination to do an online class?